State Council polls

MUMBAI, Dec 10: Nominations to the Maharashtra legislative Council elections from the local self government bodies8217; constituency opened yesterday with two Shiv Sena members filing their papers before Election Commission.The Sena has put up Minister for Education Sudhir Joshi as its first candidate and Kanhaiyalal Gidwani as its second nominee for the two seats from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation.

While the Congress is not challenging Joshi, it might yet put up a fight for the second seat from the BMC although it is still undecided about supporting the Samajwadi Party candidate in a new-found alliance aimed at improving its performance during the ensuing Lok Sabha elections. However, SP candidate Hussain Dalwai today filed his nomination papers for this council seat with no Congress challenger in the fray for the moment. The Sena falls short of proportional votes for its second candidate. However, Gidwani is confident of winning the seat with the help of several independents in the BMC.